Keeping her Nerves

Angie stormed in this morning just after going out to serve breakfast and let the horses out. "Asyr" is stuck on the ground again. Quickly dash out, Angie had already placed ropes around his front and rear hooves. and we rolled him over on to the other belly side. Then getting him to lift his head put knee against his neck and push as he struggles to get on his knees and then stand. Succeeded but nothing special - sadly this happens a couple of times a year and we and Asyr have a well practised system. Well he is now heading towards his 31st birthday in spring which in human terms makes him an octogenarian, not unusual for an Arabian.

Angie took him with her for a foot walk the other day with the dogs in the forest. Now Angie is a fast walker but she had to give up and let Asyr free as she simply couldn't keep up. Luckily we know him well enough to let him do this. In fact if it wasn't for the other horese, we could let him roam freely around the yard.

To get his circulation working, Angie then rode out on Rosie and took Asyr along "for the ride", Luna leading the pack and Flash keeping the rearguard protected.

On the walk, Flash had a stop to lift a leg and then suddenly his hind quarters collapsed. Luckily after a few moments he could start limping on all four and then went normally. Shortly afterwards, Luna dashed in to the forest and came back limping on 3 feet. After a while she stretched herself and seemed to be back to normal.

With her thoughts on Sultan and his operation which was due to start at that time, she didn't need all of this!

In the meantime a package with the new geese automatic door arrived. Seems Post suffering seasonal stress - normally it would have been here Tuesday but got an Email on Tuesday night to say it would arrive Wednesday midday. Even met the postwoman yesterday but she said no parcel for us, then an Email last night to say it would arrive today.

I started wiring and fixing up the door machine and at some point came in to hear Angie on the phone - the clinic called to say everything had gone very well and had been a success. The surgeon praised our farrier Richard, praised our vet and above all praised the steps Angie had taken over the last few weeks based solely on her experience and "feel".

So great relief. We now just need to sort out what we are going to do with him for the next 4 weeks or so. He has to be restricted in his movement which means staying in a stall - not his world. Would be impossible to do it here, he would simply dance around all day looking at his playmates on the fields. Angie will drive to the clinic at the weekend to look at the possibilities of him staying there and maybe having daily convalescent work at an almost adjoining, very noble looking, horse therapy center with their swimming pool also used for dog therapy! Perhaps something for Luna and Flash too? Sultan would love that!

I finished the door and it worked at sunset. Will take a few days if not weeks to get it perfect. One more or less only gets one opportunity a day to see if one has the settings right - correct level of daylight at sunrise and darkness at sunset. luckily it came complete with a remote control so that one can override the automatic. This evening the door came down when it was still relatively night - while I will now djust this plus I can add a 30, 60 or 90 minute, post sunset delay, I fear the geese will jot go in and so will have to open and close it with the remote as I dash around trying to herd them in, "assisted" (hindered) by Luna dashing around chasing imaginary frisbees and Flash deligently treating them as chickens but not realising that when one breaks away, the rest will follow regardless of what he does. I do feel for him as he tries so hard using all the tricks he knows but they simply don't follow any of the rules.